A police officer who raped his female colleague as she slept has been jailed for six years.
Jamie Foster was found guilty of raping his colleague after a two-week trial in the Auckland District Court. Photo: RNZ/Anneke Smith
Jamie Foster, 29, groped and later raped a female officer as she slept in a Kerikeri motel last February.
Both assaults occurred on a night of drinking games and lewd behaviour among a group of officers who had been sent to Northland to work over Waitangi commemorations.
Foster was found guilty of indecent assault and sexual violation after a two-week trial in the Auckland District Court last month.
He was publicly identified for the first time last week after abandoning an appeal to the High Court of the trial judge's refusal to grant continued name suppression.
The North Shore constable was jailed for six years today but not before his victim - who can't be identified for legal reasons - faced him in court.
Victim speaks
This afternoon, the woman told the court her life - and trust in the police force in which she worked - had been destroyed by the sexual assaults.
"It's f****** not fair. Fair; let's talk about fair because somehow you don't get it, Jamie. It's not fair you sexually violated me; taking something from me that does not belong to you; something that I will never get back."
The woman said the past 15 months had been filled with the darkest, emptiest and saddest days of her life.
"I thought I knew what was coming; what the process entailed, yet I never truly understood how soul-destroying it would be.
"Immediately I was stripped of all my privacy and dignity; having to say what happened to me over and over and to numerous people, to strangers."
Her voice quivered as she described the rape and later detailed the invasive medical examination she underwent hours after the assault.
She said giving evidence in court was like being assaulted again and described how she felt of learning male colleagues she trusted had joked about sexual advances towards her.
"How was I ever going to be safe or protected with this behaviour? Court felt like I was being assaulted again. Having to tell my truth, which should be your story.
"Five days I sat in court telling the truth; telling the truth in such a public way because that is all I could do. two days being cross-examined; being called a liar; accusing me. I felt slut-shamed. Powerless and helpless."
The woman told the court she had been looking forward to a career in the police force but her ambition and zest for life had left her.
She said she was now diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and extreme depression.
"I'm forever labeled as the policewoman who was raped by a policeman. I was supposedly protected however I cannot hide from it at work.
"You, a policeman employed and trusted to uphold the law and keep people safe. I have no idea how you are able to be a police officer.
"Your actions and behaviours, what you think you can get away with; hiding behind the blue uniform. You took advantage of that trust in the utmost degrading and dehumanizing way."
Lawyer submissions
At trial, Foster's defence argued any sexual activity between the pair was a consensual part of a pre-arranged hook up.
His lawyer, Paul Borich QC, told the jury CCTV footage of the pair socialising that night showed they were more than colleagues.
However, Crown prosecutor Fiona Culliney told the jury the man had "helped himself" to the woman that night.
"Put simply, he helped himself to the sleeping complainant. He took the risks given his own intoxication and sense of entitlement."
The jury returned guilty verdicts; finding the woman did not consent - nor the defendant believe she was consenting - during either assault.
The Crown sought a sentence of eight and a half years' imprisonment.
Prosecutor Rebekah Thompson said, as a police officer, Foster had to be held to a higher standard than an ordinary civilian.
"He swore an oath to uphold and enforce the law and instead of doing that he broke the law and violated a colleague.
"And in doing that he brought the police force as a whole into disrepute. Actions like this damage the public confidence in the police."
During Foster's trial, the court saw CCTV footage of the police officers playing drinking games that night.
They took turns at skulling beer out of a police batton and on two occasions a senior officer exposed himself to the group.
The behaviour was later condemned by Superintendent Naila Hassan, who said the officers' antics that night as unacceptable, disappointing, and out of line with the values of police.
Four staff were investigated for breaching the police code of conduct but only one of them is no longer working for the New Zealand Police.
Addressing the court today, Borich said that, while the behaviour was clearly unacceptable, his client couldn't be a scapegoat for it.
"There was a lot that went on up there that didn't have anything to do with Mr Foster or [the victim] which bought the police into disrepute.
"It would be wrong to somehow have Mr Foster treated as a scapegoat for all of that. He should be treated on the offending and the offending itself. There is no aggravation in his position as a police officer."
Foster continues to maintain that any sexual activity between the pair that night was consensual.
However, in his sentencing remarks, Judge Evangelos Thomas said this simply wasn't the case.
"The evidence does not leave open the possibility that it was anything other than rape or the possibility of any mistaken belief in consent.
"She woke when she felt the pain. The rape stopped at that point but, as you've heard so graphically, the trauma was just beginning."
Judge Thomas jailed him for six years for rape, adding a further 12 month sentence for indecent assault to be served concurrently.
Speaking after the sentencing, Borich confirmed Foster will file an appeal against his conviction tomorrow.
